


there is no such beauty as where you belong

by EffervescentYellow



Series: across the rolling dales of heather [5]
Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: Anal Sex, Christmas, M/M, Meeting the Family, More tags to be added, Mutual Masturbation, Romance, Smut, the first chapter has basically not plot, the other chapters will be more tame
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-21 10:41:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30020535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EffervescentYellow/pseuds/EffervescentYellow
Summary: When they meet in December, things fall into place.
Relationships: Thomas Barrow/Richard Ellis
Series: across the rolling dales of heather [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2154012
Comments: 10
Kudos: 19





	there is no such beauty as where you belong

**Author's Note:**

> This first chapter is really just porn, so if that's not your thing, just wait until the other(s) are posted. 
> 
> In the timeline of the series, this would be set before the first segment.

Just after Christmas, Richard took two days to head down to York, and when he asked Thomas to join him, Thomas wouldn’t have considered saying no for the entire world, but he couldn’t help feeling astonished and nervous and a thousand other things at the thought of meeting his family. The fact that Richard _wanted him to_ alone was almost unbelievable. The fact that he _could_ was something Thomas hadn’t allowed himself to even think about before.

They agreed to spend the first afternoon together in a hotel where they would of course have to lie and pretend and all the other things they both hated but where they could be together and alone, and then from that evening to the next it would be all for family. And even though they had discussed it as much as they could over the phone and in letters and even in hushed tones from the station as they walked through York, by the time they reached the inside of their room on the third floor of an old establishment, Thomas still couldn’t manage to keep his worries out of his head.

“I’m likely to say something stupid.”

“Aren’t we all now and again?”

“I do so more than _now and again_.”

Richard reached out and took off his hat for him, “They care for me, and I for you. It’s a simple equation from there.”

“Is it?”

“Yes,” Richard said firmly, as if there was no room for doubt.

“Okay,” he made himself breathe out.

“Okay?”

He nodded and Richard stepped closer to push his overcoat and then his jacket off his shoulders and hang them both by the door. He then cradled Thomas’ cheek with his hand and ran his thumb soothingly across his cheekbone, smiling at him reassuringly. When Thomas closed his eyes, he pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth and then down to his jaw.

“I want you here,” Richard kissed into his neck, “I would never have asked if I thought it was a bad idea.” Another kiss now at his collar, “I want you here with me.”

And then he slipped his leg between Thomas’.

“I _want_ you.”

That part at least Thomas believed _(and what an endless wonder that was)_ because he could _feel_ Richard against him. He wasn’t there yet – the butterflies in his stomach still flying around too freely – but Richard was firm between his thighs already

“Show me.”

“What?” Richard mumbled against his skin, continuing to kiss him feverishly.

Thomas wasn’t sure where this sudden burst of confidence was coming from, but he was tired of feeling small and needy, and anyhow, he’d never shied around this type of thing before. He slid a hand up the side of Richard’s neck and pushed his thumb against his cheek, getting him to look up and _Christ if his eyes weren’t wanting_.

“Show me?” he repeated, this time as a question. He hadn’t meant to sound demanding, but then Richard hadn’t seemed to notice (or mind).

Richard began to lower his hand towards Thomas’ thighs, but Thomas took his wrist and gently redirected it towards his own, placing both their hands on the bulge in Richard’s trousers.

“Oh,” Richard breathed out roughly as Thomas pressed down, “You mean-?”

“Only if you want.”

“I-“ Richard opened and closed his mouth as Thomas removed his hand and instead began to unbutton his shirt, “Yeah.”

Thomas pushed his shirt open and ran his hands slowly down the plans of his chest, because if they were doing this, it wasn’t as if he wasn’t going to touch him at all. “You’re sure?”

This time Richard didn’t hesitate before nodding sincerely, “Yeah.”

He helped Thomas push his shirt off completely and then had his trousers unbuttoned, palming himself through his underwear. Thomas hooked his thumbs around those as well and pulled, helping him step out of them before holding him by the hips and leaning in to kiss him.

Richard tongued at his upper lip, gasping into his mouth as he palmed against himself again, skin to skin. He ran his tongue behind Thomas’ front teeth, and Thomas had to stifle a groan, making a sound closer to a whimper. If his body hadn’t been responding before, it was now – arousal curling in his gut.

“Let’s get you out of these, then,” Richard breathed as he pulled away, slipping off Thomas’ braces and undoing his buttons with one hand as his other rubbed lazily against himself.

He was much too collected still for Thomas’ liking.

Thomas hurried out of the rest of his clothes and guided Richard backwards to one of the beds. It would have to work because he wasn’t going to stop and push both of them together now.

“I want to watch you,” he murmured, looking at Richard’s face for confirmation, and the man just smiled.

“Then watch,” he said airily, raising an eyebrow, before draping himself down across the bedsheets, leg pulled up to one side and hand back on his prick.

He was gorgeous like this – unhurried and open for Thomas to see.

He just gave _endlessly_.

Before Thomas could join him, Richard motioned out with his free hand, “bring the Vaseline, won’t you?”

Thomas obliged and fished out the tin from the pocket in his case. He watched as Richard warmed some between his fingers before slowly, finally, curling them all the way around his prick and gliding his hand up and down. Thomas’ mouth felt dry as he watched; he sat at the end of the bed, not knowing what to do with himself and feeling a bit silly, so he curled a hand around Richard’s raised calf to anchor himself.

Thomas tried to notice everything: the way he gripped himself loosely, the way he teased his foreskin and the head with his thumb, the way his hips lifted lazily at each downstroke. “Is this how you always do it?” he asked.

“Mmh,” Richard hummed in reply, “If I’ve the time.”

“You like it slow.”

“You know that,” Richard smiled at him – that close-lipped, joyful, teasing smile.

He did. It was nice to know things like that about someone.

“You look gorgeous, Dick. Looking like that should be banned,” and then they both winced at the same time because it basically _bloody well was_ , and he was an idiot, “Sorry. Christ. Sorry.”

Richard shook his head and changed the subject, “Is this how you’ve liked to imagine me, then? Late at night,” he smirked, “during the day even?”

Thomas rested his cheek against his knee, “I think I’ve imagined you in every way possible,” he said honestly.

Richard grinned at him, “And what do you think of most often?”

“I think about you above me,” because they’d actually _done_ that, hadn’t they. He’d be thinking about this for ages now, though.

“Oh?” Richard asked, and then he was shifting, pushing himself up and Thomas back until they were in almost opposite positions, with Richard astride his knees.

If watching him from above had been enchanting, watching him from below was another thing entirely. Just a firm press against his chest from Richard and his own prick was now leaking below his navel.

Richard seemed to take to it as well – arching his neck back and shifting his hips with purpose now into his fist.

“Do you think of me?” he asked, his voice suddenly hoarse.

Richard smiled back down at him (he was _glowing_ ), “I couldn’t think of anything else.”

Thomas drew his hands along the outside of Richard’s thighs and watched as he brought his own free hand up to his chest, rubbing across a nipple and choking down a whine. Thomas was barely touching him and even so Richard could make sounds like that.

He pushed himself up so that he was seated and pressed his thumb to Richard’s lips. At first Richard seemed to think that he was telling him to stay quiet (which he would need to be) but when he let his thumb linger, Richard raised his eyebrows and then sucked it into his mouth, tonguing against it and closing his eyes. Thomas’ own breath hitched at the sight.

After a few seconds, he carefully pulled his hand away and dragged it gently across Richard’s other nipple, causing his whole body to shudder.

Thomas smiled at him playfully before dipping his head and placing his lips where his thumb had just been. Richard jerked beneath him and turned his head to press his mouth into Thomas’ hair, fighting down a whine.

After a second more he ran a hand through the hair at Thomas’ forehead, pushing him back, “Thomas. _Thomas_ , holy- Christ. If you keep with that this’ll all be over very soon.”

Thomas moved his hands back down to his hips, “You could come off just from that?”

“ _Just_ ,” Richard laughed breathlessly, “Yeah… yeah, and I will if you keep at it.”

Thomas rested back down on his elbows, letting them both catch their breath for a second. He was more than aching between his legs now. “Hand me the tin, won’t you?” he asked, and Richard’s eyes widened with want.

He slicked up his hand and began to touch himself as well. He thought about trying to copy Richard, but he didn’t think he could manage to touch himself that lightly if it was up to him alone, so he took himself in hand as he always did – fingers curling tight around himself as he arched into the touch – and he could feel Richard’s eyes on him.

It was strange really, to be doing this each on their own when they had so little time together in the grand scheme of things, but there was _something_ about it that felt almost more intimate than anything they’d ever done before. It was exposing a way that should have been terrifying really, but it felt good. It didn’t feel like he was doing anything alone at all.

He was entranced watching both of their hands move out of sync, yet he felt as though they were breathing together. It was mesmerizing.

“Do you ever put your fingers anywhere else?” he found himself asking.

“If I’ve the time,” Richard repeated as he had earlier, but this time his voice was no longer smooth – his words bracketed by lilting gasps.

“We’ve time now, don’t we?”

Richard moaned into the back of his wrist and nodded. He leaned down towards Thomas, bracing himself against the mattress, before removing his hand from his prick, adding more Vaseline, and reaching back behind to press a finger inside himself.

Thomas had to bite down into the leather of his glove to stifle the sounds that bubbled up within him at the sight, but Richard didn’t have a hand free to do the same. He pressed his lips tightly together, but as he pushed himself back onto his finger, he ended up with his mouth pressed just below Thomas’ shoulder to quiet himself. With him leaned down as he was, he was exposed in the air – a wanton angle from which Thomas could watch his arm as he pumped slowly in and out of himself, and it was almost too much. He stopped touching himself to reach up and hold Richard’s hips and could feel as Richard moved back and forth against himself.

As Richard sat back to add another finger, he breathed out, “I imagine it’s you… when I- when I do this. I imagine it’s you that’s inside me.”

One day Richard was going to say something like that, and Thomas was going to lose himself from the pleasure of his words alone.

Thomas’ hips kicked up of their own accord and Richard laughed breathlessly ( _desperately_ ) because while Thomas had done such a thing more times than he could count in his own room at night, the thought that just a few hours away Richard was in _Buckingham bloody Palace_ fucking himself on his own hand while thinking of Thomas just the same was almost too much.

“You think of me.”

“Yes, darling,” Richard replied, pushing back to look at him, and _if he didn’t look practically spent himself_ with his hair tangled across his brow and cheeks flushed, “my darling.”

Thomas whimpered and brought his hand back down to touch himself again, watching as in no time Richard was adding a third finger behind himself, his head arched back and mouth open with pleasure.

“Thomas, love…” he panted, looking back down to catch his eye, “Can I ride you?”

_Jesus fucking Christ._

He should have seen that this was where they were headed.

Richard must have seen the way he stiffened, because without missing a beat Richard was continuing on as though he hadn’t asked anything at all. “Never mind.”

“I-“

“Don’t worry over it. We can pretend I never asked.”

Thomas shook his head. He felt silly and nervous and suddenly out of his depth but he _did_ want it, “It’s only..”

This time Richard stilled completely and sat back, looking at him with soft eyes that were stuck somewhere between curious and concerned, “What is it, darling?”

Thomas had to close his eyes.

“I’ve never done it before.”

Richard paused, “…I reckon it’s about the same as if you were to be on top.”

“No, I-“ he swallowed nervously (Richard wouldn’t care – he knew he wouldn’t care at all, yet he could feel his face growing hot) “I’ve never been the one to- to _give_ … ever…”

Richard reached out and rubbed a hand across his chest soothingly, “As I said, we don’t have to.” How he could be so calm suddenly with _three fingers_ still inside of him, Thomas hadn’t a clue.

“I think I’d like to.”

“I’d rather if you were _sure_ ,” Richard murmured gently, tapping his finger against the underside of Thomas’ chin to get him to open his eyes.

When he did, he was met only with warmth.

_No one has ever looked at me the way you do._

“I’d like to.”

Richard took him at his word and nodded, which Thomas appreciated.

“I’m ready then, so whenever you are.”

He needed a moment to catch his breath before finally nodding.

Richard slowly slipped his hand out of himself, sighing as he did so, and the wrapped his warm, slick fingers around Thomas. It was hedonistic and all too much to think about; he had to go back to biting hard into his glove.

Richard then crawled up closer and positioned his prick against his entrance before slowly, slowly slipping down, and Thomas could see his stomach cave in as he stopped breathing. Thomas wanted to cry out, wanted to cling to him as he sank lower. It felt so warm and smooth and the fact that it was _Richard_ , that he was pleasuring Richard in a way he’d clearly thought about for months left him dazed and desperate.

And then when Richard moved and he could _see it happening_ , he choked down a moan that sounded almost like a sob.

“How do you feel?” Richard asked, his voice strung out, “how does it feel, Thomas?”

“It’s- ah- it’s,” He was struggling to speak. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from where he could see Richard’s body taking him, “good. So good.”

And that was an understatement by far, but it was the best he could do.

“You _feel_ good,” Richard breathed out. He braced both hands back behind him and began to move with clear intent, his back arching and abdomen shuddering as he took himself apart on Thomas prick, “You feel so good inside of me.”

And then Richard took one hand back to his own prick and Thomas watched as he pushed himself down onto him and then up into his own fist, head thrown back and sweat sparkling between his collarbones, and Richard moved with a kind of want and freedom and joy he couldn’t remember ever seeing in anyone else, and Thomas was sure that he’d never seen a more sensual thing in his whole life.

He had never bedded a man who carried so little shame on his shoulders.

He took to gripping Richard’s hips so hard he worried that it might bruise, but Richard didn’t stop him. As much as he wanted to keep watching, to have this memory emblazoned in his mind, he couldn’t keep his eyes open. It was just the feeling of Richard around him and the slick sounds of them moving together and the stifled sounds of Richard above him and his own stuttering breaths.

It could have been seconds or hours for all he knew when Richard’s body finally fell out of rhythm and he gasped out, “Thomas, darling… _darling_ … I’m close…”

Thomas forced his eyes back open, “Go on then… go on, I want to see you.”

Richard sank down onto him once more and his body tightened all around him and Thomas could _feel it_ and then he was spilling himself across his hand and on Thomas’ chest, murmuring all the while, “You’re wonderful, _wonderful_.”

He stilled after a moment, limbs trembling and chest heaving, and just looked at Thomas with eyes that glinted wide and endless with something unnamed.

When he eventually made to move again, his whole body shuddered, overwhelmed, and he pulled off. Before Thomas could even say a word, Richard straddled his thigh and wrapped his hand, covered in his own spend, tightly around him.

And it was that that finally brought him over – just a few strokes and he was tensing and curling up beneath him, mouth pinned open in a silent gasp as the light behind his eyelids sparked with pleasure.

Afterwards, Richard laid down across him, the mess between them forgotten for the time being, and his head was a comforting weight against his chest. Thomas wrapped his arms around him, and Richard nuzzled against his arm, his eyelashes tickling his skin.

“And now what,” Thomas said eventually, suddenly finding the energy to tease when he could barely lift his limbs, “we get ready to go see your parents?”

Richard laughed fully against his chest, curling tighter against him, “Christ, Thomas. Give a man a moment, won’t you?”

Thomas laughed as well and then quieted, listening to the sounds to their breathing together and holding on to the tenderness of the moment.

Richard fumbled a hand up until it reached his hair and then patted gently, and Thomas could still hear the smile in his voice. “My love.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you're thinking, "are they really going to go meet his family after all that?" the answer is "yes."
> 
> As always, find me on [tumblr](https://effervescentyellow.tumblr.com/).


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